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“What kind of shit would that be?”
“The kind that means after long last, you’re meeting with your daughter.”
All the color drained from Anna’s face. Gone was the bravado and attitude. She might’ve been a good actress. Back in the day she might’ve been able to turn on the charm and play the damsel in distress to screw Zane, but no one was that good. No one could fake that kind of fear.
“Zane—”
“It’s done. It’s over. It’s time, Anna. You gotta daughter who’s mourned you for twenty years. That ends for her today.”
Anna’s gaze came directly to me. Eyes pleading. Panic evident.
“You don’t want to do this,” Anna said, shaking her head.
“Do what?”
“You need to protect her from me.”
Acid leaked into my gut as her threat registered.
“You obviously don’t know your daughter or you wouldn’t make that threat. She’ll chew you up and spit you out before I could lift a finger. Now get your ass up and let’s go.”
“You don’t understand—”
“What I understand is, I promised my woman I’d be bringing her mother in so she could see for herself you’re alive. What you should also know—I promised to do that even if I had to cuff you and tape your mouth shut. She has some things she’d like to say to you that I suspect don’t require a response, so that tape will remain in place until Viper or Badger decides what to do with you.”
“Trust me, she’s better off not knowing,” Anna whispered.
“Woman, I don’t trust you. But Nebraska trusts me so what’ll it be? Cuffs and tape or are you gonna come with us and give my woman what she needs?”
I didn’t miss the flinch when I said Nebraska’s name.
“I had a man love me like that once.”
“Yeah, you had a kid who loved you like that, too. Yet you still left them.”
Anna surged to her feet, wine sloshing over the bowl, before she side-armed the glass and it shattered on the floor. Not a person in the room moved with her outburst.
“Don’t you stand there and pass judgment on me, asshole.” Anna’s face twisted up in pain and anger. “You cannot imagine what it took for me to leave them. Both of them, but especially my daughter. You cannot for one fucking second understand the pain. The guilt I’ve lived with. I prayed for death. Wished for it. Without them, without her, I had nothing. I am nothing. You want to give her what she needs, you’ll keep me far away from her so she can live the rest of her life without being tarnished by me. She’ll forgive Charlie. He’s a good man. They’re a family. They don’t need me fucking that up.”
There was no denying Anna’s pain suffocated the room; it was stifling, the magnitude of it. I felt for her—felt each of her words hit me square in the chest, felt her guilt like it was my own. But her pain and suffering weren’t my problem—Nebraska’s was.
“You sure about that?” I asked.
“Positive.”
She didn’t sound positive. She sounded broken.
“She’s so much like you it’s uncanny. Gives a new spin on nature versus nurture. Or maybe she had enough time with you to get both. You’re fucking terrified, and instead of saying that, you’re hiding behind attitude and defiance. She tried that with me, too. Called her on it and put a stop to that shit. So check it, Anna, this is how this is going to go. You’re coming with us to meet your daughter. When you get there you’re gonna drop Pigeon and be Anna. And when you sit across from my girl you’re gonna remember she’s Nebraska, not Dove, and you’re gonna do that remembering she loves you. You leaving tore her apart and as much as it fucks me to admit I can’t do something for her, you’re the only one who can piece that back together. So you’re doing it or you wishing for death all those years will become a reality. You feel me?”
Anna’s gaze sliced to Zane. The anger slid out, leaving guilt and shame behind.
“He’s just like you.”
I wasn’t sure if that was an accusation, an insult, or a statement. I also didn’t give a fuck. I wanted this to be over so I could get Anna to Nebraska. I wanted that to happen quickly so I could get to work helping my woman deal with the aftermath of another hit.
I was done with this shit. Not only Anna and Charlie. I was done with Maddon hanging out there while we waited for him to strike. I wanted this over for Nebraska so she could move on and I could get busy convincing her Greece was no longer an option and Maryland was where she wanted to be.
“They all are,” Zane returned. “You think I’d hire some fuckwit to have my back?”
